Time-Tracking to Find a Better Balance
Wall Clock
Time tracking can help us understand how we are spending our time and find balance in our life. It will not solve all your problems, but it may help you find a better balance. Finding that balance while trying to stay productive and successful is not easy. Our normal measurements are all out of whack. What we love may not be what we do, and what we must do may not make us happy. All that cannot be solved here but understanding it may help you find a better balance.
I have spent years of my live working in operations and in designing employee and client experiences. One that that is a given in this world is that too much time not being productive brings on frustration. But also, not having enough time with the activies we love and which bring us joy causes us to become burnt out. Balance is key. Having too little to do is just as frustrating as having too much to do sometimes.
One way to get a handle on this in a personal way is to spend some time tracking what you do and how it affects you. Not just simply trakcing things like "at work," or "eating dinner," but more about the how what you are doing makes you feel. It could as simple as a list of activities and how they make you feel at that moment. For example, your tracking may be more like “6:30 pm, eating dinner but in a rush - feel overwhelmed”, or, “3:15 pm, taking a walk to get away from the rush. I may be in trouble for leaving, but I needed 5 minutes of happiness.”
The idea would be to find the commonalities in the items that make you feel joy, and/or the ones that make you feel frustrated. What activities make you feel like you are improving your life and which ones make you feel like you are stuck in a rut.
Then ask yourself questions like, “can I change the time I complete activities?” “Do I find more effect work by focusing more in the morning or evening?” “Do I spend enough time with family and friends to recharge so I can be more effective while working?” “Do I spend too much time reading reports, and not enough reading for myself?” These questions are a way to try to be more mindful about your time. You may be surprised by what you see.
It is something I have done and helped others do. The insights gained have always been surprising and have helped improve our lives.
The idea is not to exclusively do what makes us happy and stop doing what makes us unhappy. Sorry, but that is just not realistic, or the way life works at all. We all still need to clean the house and go to work. We all still have to do the laundry and the dishes and drive our kids around to activities. What this will tell you is how you are allocating your time and help you see things you may be missing that would be great improvements.
